before him and the world 6. Now from this foundation laid this principle granted this fountain of all spirituall wisdome and understanding opened doe issue all particular branches of our faith illuminating us some few of which articles reduced into the three eminent Creeds of all Christian Churches viz. The Apostolicall the Nicene and Athanasian which may yet be more plainly and vulgarly thus ordered to easie capacities 1. First that there is a God and this God but one in nature and substance of an infinite eternal immutable Being and there is or can possibly be no more number herein destroying all perfection proper to the divine Being which article though some of the wise Naturalists did give their cold assent unto yet scarce ever so but they tolerated such opinions and religions of others as maintained the contrary feeling rather as the Apostles phrase is after God than finding him or holding him fast by such a strong faith as Christians are and must be indued with knowing assuredly that Religion and our Salvation receive by no one superstition so deadly a blow and destructive to all sound Christianity as to erre about this first principle by acknowledging directly or indirectly more than one God that is either in the Proposition professing more than one which totally subverts Christianity or in Practice worshipping that for God which is not God though under a strong perswasion that what we worship is that one true God and though in mind and intention we design to worship only the true God. For such a fact upon involuntarie errour and all errour is said by wise men to be involuntarie may mitigate the offence before God and man but it cannot at all change the thing it selfe making that to be no idolatrie which is Idolatrie or that no heresie which is heresie in it selfe but only by certain circumstance may alleviate and yet we know not how little or much the crime of the offender which crime is in it selfe directly damnable and so by the doctrine of our Christian faith to be reputed and even with the losse of our lives to be avoided 2. And the same faith likewise teacheth us as necessary to salvation to believe aright of the severall and distinct wayes of the subsistence of the Deitie in the Trinity of the persons which we commonly call Father Son and Holy Ghost which as we must believe to be three and not one Person so must we believe to be one in nature and substance and not three so that the Father begetteth the Son and is not begotten of any and the Son is begotten of the Father by an Eternall and incorrupt generation not to be parallel'd in any other productions though dimly represented unto us And the Holy Ghost proceedeth from the Father and the Son by such a divine emanation as is not imitable by any created procession And in this article of our Faith Christians being wholly destitute of all naturall assistance to believe the whole must redound to the power and pleasure of God revealing these things and rendering them credible our faith upon that ground receiving them 3. And a third point of our Faith proceedeth to reunite as it were in our mindes and perswasions those persons we acknowledge to stand so distinguished by their intrinsecall Relations mentioned in their outward operations such as are acts of Creation Preservation and Governing by a most wise and just providence all things which are in this visible world and in that or those worlds which are to us invisible called Celestiall 4. And hence it is that by the same faith we are taught more expressely and particularly that the One God Father Son and Holy Ghost gave a being to all the world and out of nothing produced what we see and what we understand and more than we can behold and apprehend determining that knottie controversie which the Philosophers could make no work with concerning the Creation of the world which some would have never to have been but subsisting from eternitie of it selfe and not only so but we understand by divine Revelation and Illumination how the world was made and that not by the contriving of the brain or a modell laid before the eyes or by the labour of the hand the sweat of the face and tedious but necessarie toyl of many dayes years or ages but by the lightest and easiest way we could possibly understand any thing to be wrought For thus we read Heb. 11. 2. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear And so we read Psalm 33. 6. By the word of the Lord were the heavens made and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth And yet not so by the word or mouth of God as that any such part is to be admitted in God or that properly God so spake vocally For to what or whom should God speak so when there was no bodie yea nothing to hear but it was a mere simple pure velleity or willing of him so effectuall as to produce the Universe without the labour of his hands or of any other Agent or Instrument under him as some have vainlie imagined contrary to our divine Faith. For by the same power that God could create a worme he could create an Elephant and with the same ease that he could create a Mite he might create the hugest Monster that ever the earth bare yea the earth it selfe and that without delaies or distances of times though to shew his libertie and not necessity of working and to teach us advisednesse in all our Actions of importance he vouchsafed to distribute his acts into severall orders and spaces of duration called Dayes For as 't is said in six dayes the Lord made heaven and earth and all that is therein c. 5. And from this generall working or acting of God we are lead to an higher degree more nearly concerning our selves For it must necessarily follow from hence that as the Psalmist affirmeth He hath made us and not we our selves Psalm 95. And that as he made all things very good so the more noble in rank such things were the more perfect and unblameable they must needs be as they came out of Gods hands For God doth not work or proceed after the manner of nature from imperfect to perfect as all naturall productions are ill formed and defective at first and in tract of time arise to their ordained perfection but God made all things and especially Man at once most perfect both as to inward endowments and outward forme stature and parts so that nothing was wanting either to the ornament of his minde or the perfection of his bodie Crowning both with holinesse and happinesse immortal wherein his own Image and likenesse principally consisted adding unto them here in this life power and dominion under him over all earthly things 6 Furhermore the same faith teacheth us the Original
is requisite that we should not rest in the opinion we have of our selves which is commonly biassed by selfe-conceit selfe-love selfe-interest all quite contrary to that great Dutie of Selfe-deniall but that we should be so true and just to our own Soules as like righteous Judges to keep one Ear for what others judge of us and impartially to give a sentence upon our selves accordingly and not slie to that base and bold subterfuge of nonplus'd and shamelesse persons I care not I care not For though Malice and ill-will may instigate some one or two and upon speciall occasion to false accusations and slanders yet if the opinion be of more and those not so prejudiced and constant and lasting in vain doe men proclaim their integrity and innocencie for such judgement of others is much more to be trusted than our own 7. Sixthly Appearance of Evill and Hypocrisie reverst as I may so speak when men seem by outward carriage to be worse than in trueth they are is allso carefully to be avoided not onely because of the sin of scandalizing our Brethren and causing an erroneous judgement and uncharitable to be entertained but because it very often happens that men fall really into that sin which they at first onely seemed to committ Therefore it is St. Pauls Rule Philip. 2. 4. Look not every man on his own things but every man allso on the things of others not by curiositie and censoriousnesse but Charitie and conscienti ous walking without offence to others and if possible to prevent sin in others as well as our selves 8. Lastly Every man should have Charitie towards his Brother but no man is to demean himselfe so as to stand in need of the charitable judgement of others For he that doth so is certainly uncharitable in the first place and being really guiltie within himselfe is most wickedly unjust in demanding that another should be so charitable as not to think so of him though there be use of Charitie even where Crimes are past defence or excuses but for men to live conscious to themselves of unrighteousness towards God and justice towards men and then because there may want notorious convictions to demand of Censurers to judge charitably is in effect to require that others should be religious and they may be wicked under the protection of others Pietie and Charitie A Prayer for Puritie of Spirit O Lord God who is like unto thee amongst the Gods Who is like unto thee glorious in holinesse fearfull in praises doing wonders And what greater wonder is there than of sons of Men we should be called the Sons of God and of Children of wrath heirs of the Kingdome of God of lost sheep be brought back to the great Shepheard of our Soules of prodigall and fugitive Sons be brought home and embraced by thee our heavenly Father making us as well as requiring us to be holy as thou art holy raising us from the death of sin to the life of Righteousnesse given us by the Spirit of Grace which worketh in us by the meanes of Grace ordained by thee to that great end Let that Spirit be never wanting in me let that Grace never be received by me in vain whereby I may be sensible of my unworthinesse and insufficiencie to any thing that is good and at least to have an hunger and thirst after righteousnesse that I may in thy due time be satisfied and in the mean time grow and increase in this desire and this desire proceed to action and this action to such perfection as to overcome and mortifie all worldly lusts and Carnall affections purifying my selfe as he is pure and taking greater content and pleasure in casting off than ever I did in taking on me the burden of sin and in purging away all my old sin than ever I did in contracting those spots and blemishes which have too much and too long defiled that pure Spirit thou once gavest me and defaced that beautifull Image thou once stampedst on me And let the pleasure of Repenting be greater to me than that of offending ever was to me though alas it was too great Lord nothing is impossible to thee who canst bring light out of darknesse and strength out of weaknesse and out of stones raise up Children unto Abraham and to thy selfe and out of the ruines of Religion in me raise up a Temple fit for thy holy Spirit to dwell in Descend into possesse and dwell in my heart by faith and love of thee which may purge out the old leaven and make me a new lump and quench all fleshly Concupiscences which have or may raign over me or rage in me For this corruptible bodie presseth down my minde musing on high and heavenly things and the weight of sin so easily besetteth me that I cannot run the Race which is set before me and the stain of sin pollutes my best actions Wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this bodie of death from this bondage of corruption Thy grace I know O Lord is sufficient for me and thy Son mighty to save and that his Office is to save his people from their sins from their sins I say as well as from the punishment of sin Let that Day-star at length arise in my heart and enlighten and warm my minde with love of thee and let that breath of new life be inspired into me enliven my dead bodie and re unite and animate my drie bones and excite me with new vigour to the perfourming thy holy will that so the life I now live may be by the faith of the Son of God and being poor in spirit as he was I may be pure in spirit as he allso was for theirs is the Kingdome of God even the Kingdome of Grace here and the Kingdome of Glory hereafter whither O mercifull God and Father in thy due time bring me for thy blessed Sons sake Jesus Christ my Saviour Amen The Third Part. Treating of the UNITIVE WAY OF THE Devout Soule with God. SECT I. Of the Nature of true Vnion with God and Mysticall Theologie and of the Abuses and due Vse thereof 1. SUCH due preparation being made towards Spirituall Life in laying aside every sin so easily besetting us the remainder of our Christian Race towards God and our Union with him are more easily attained which Union is by Saint John called our fellowship with the Father and the Son 1 John 1. 3. And this is it which vulgarly is called allso Perfection Perfection being here used for Justification by faith in Christ and Christ dwelling in us and such a measure of assurance of Gods grace and favour which are competible to our Militant state in this life and incline God to the acceptation of us to a future inheritance of Immortalitie and Glorie And to this it is not absolutely necessarie that no blemish imperfection or infirmity should be incident but that none such should be found which either of it selfe should tend to corruption
his present use When the Joiner having used sufficient Art and care cannot make a joint When some little thing is so forgot in setting together a Watch or Clock that when all was supposed to be ended it must be taken apieces again When such a snarl is made in a skean of Silk or Thred that the thred must be broken men are apt to frett at higher causes than themselves which they vulgarly call Luck or Fortune really no where extant And when Cyrus as Herodotus writes in a furie laid Gyndes a River in Armenia dry by cutting three hundred and sixty Rivolets out of it because one of his white Naggs dedicated to the Sun was drowned in it could not be so stupid to think that the River merited that punishment but shewed his rage against that because it could not reach higher causes how much wiser man had he been if he had put a stop to the torrent of his Passion which is much more the wisedome and Piety of a Good Christian whome God suffereth many times to be provoked that the prevalence of true Grace may be seen in mastering himselfe and sometimes suffereth to become fretfull waspish and ready to sting him that stands next him upon either no fault but his own or verie frivolous and so if any hath offended him in such manner he punishes the innocent for it making such as converse with him to feel the effects of his imbitter'd Spirit than which there needs no cleerer argument to convince any ingenuous minde of his excesse it being but tolerable to be in Passion where the cause is given and not so to extend the same to the faultlesse This therefore all Reason and Religion requires to be corrected by the conscientious Christian SECT XIII Of the Deadly Sin of Envie its nature and Remedies 1. NEither will I goe with consuming Envie for such a man shall have no fellowship with Wisdome saith Wisdome For that likewise is a proper bratt of the Evill Spirit who since his degradation and fall cannot love nor wish well to any because he can hope for no good to himselfe Gods Kingdom is a Kingdome of order peace quietnesse love charity long-suffering gentlenesse goodnesse faith meekenesse temperance called allso the fruits of Gods Spirit by St. Paul Galat. 5. 22 23. because they spring from the seed of Grace sown in the heart by it But the Kingdome of the Devill is a Tyrannie of Adulteries Fornication Uncleannesse Lasciviousnesse Wrath Strifes Seditions Heresies Envyings Murders Drunkennesse Revilings and such like as the same Apostle speaks just before And as if Envie Hatred and Malice all of a knot and fraternity descended from the Common Father the Devil and differing rather in degree and duration than nature conspired with Anger and wrath to their mutuall advantage St. Paul Ephes 4. 21. ranks them together in this advice Let all bitternesse and wrath and anger and clamour and evill speaking be put away with all malice And again to the Colossians Chap. 3. 8. But now ye allsoe put off all these Anger Wrath Malice Blasphemie And in that he writeth to Titus Chap. 3. 3. of all the Lusts charged upon men in the state of Gentilisme he instanceth more specially in Malice and Envie whereby men are hatefull to and hating one another For where these Vices abound the Soule may be câ—mpared to those Cities which we read were by the Invader and taker sown with Salt rendring the Soil burnt and barren to all wholesome fruits and fertill to all unwholesome and pernicious weeds 2. For how nerely doth he resemble the Devill himselfe whoe becomes pale thin cloudie frowning of an averse countenance outward fretts boils and burns inwardly at the prosperitie ingenuity dexterity in actions dignitie and wealth of others exceeding him having an evill eye because Gods is good spitefull against the Donour who preferred not him against the gift as ill-placed out of him against the Person possessing it as standing in his light and usurping what he adjudges due to none so justly as himselfe And the expostulation against Providence it selfe lies higher than that cursed by the Apostle and Prophet which demandeth of the Potter and Creatour Why hast thou made me thus For the envious Person demands rather of God Why hast thou not made me so or so And why hast thou made such an one so and not thus Thus Cains countenance fell when he saw his younger Brother better accepted than himselfe of God. And then lift he up his hand against him and slew him And wherefore saith Saint John slew he him Because his workes were evill and his Brothers good And because Gods favour was greater towards him than to Cain Monstrous impietie But not there only resting as it were to be wished but imitated and acted over again in two Brothes of a wealthy and noble Familie in this Age and Nation whereof one judging himselfe undervalued in comparison of the other killed him right out and suffered the just penalty of the Common Law. This was much the same case with that malicious part played upon Joseph by his Brethren because he was clad a little finer than they and was supposed to be loved best 3. So that no place can be said to be free from this Evill Spirit of Envie which is wont to creep into the low Cottage and stir up sillie Creatures to a combination with the Devill himselfe to wreak their otherwise weak spite against their envied Neighbour And in Courts it reigns most powerfully every one allmost contending for the highest Seat and greatest favour and place so that restlesse is the ambitious and envious Spirit till it hath defeated by fine plottings and devices such as by this Vice are accounted their Enemies So that when their counsell is slighted concerning Publick affairs and that of others preferred to convince the world of the imprudence of his Competitour or Adversarie little or no conscience is made of rendring it improsperous though with the perill of the whole Commonwealth that so for the future such a mans wisdome might be blasted and his flourish and be admired This was seen notoriously in the emulation between Hanno and Hannibal he envying the glorie and successe of this in Councill constantly advised and contrived what might crush him rather than advance the good of his Countrey whereby at length he was the ruine of both So that a King may not without double securitie of integritie and such generousnesse of minde as can master Malice and Envie ever follow the advice of that Counsellour in the managing a designe who hath directly before opposed the same For such is the pride of mens heart that they hate to build sincerely and faithfully upon that foundation they at first rejected but tacitely if not openly triumph at the miscarriages of others Projects how reasonable and profitable soever they might have been in themselves though of an unhappie event because their will and wisdome consented not to them 4. Neither can Justice in
than of uncleannesse contracted which they ought to be and therefore seldome repent of it as they ought to doe But when Nature shall have weather'd that Rock yet open violence is too often offer'd to the tender Innocent in barbarous manner And when it comes not to this yet how doe noble and great Persons many times offending in this manner become so vile as to stand in awe of their Foot-boyes and Chamber-maids privie to their wickednesse that they may keep their counsell So that the fact is dishonest and dishonourable the pleasure momentarie and fugitive the punishment instant and durable even in this life and in the world to come unquenchable by any thing but timely and plentifull teares here poured out to prevent the same SECT XVI Of Gluttonie its sinfullnesse and Cure. 1. IT is observed by Saint Hierome that the Seats of Incontinence and Intemperance are by nature placed nere together intimating the nere relation they bear one to another and the mutuall aid they give to advance one another For extravagant Lust must have excessive Diet to maintain it and excessive pampering of the Bellie by Drinks and Meats doe naturally tend to concupiscence It is the opinion of the Greek Church as we read in the Councill of Florence that the Evill and Apostate Spirits cast down from their Dignity missed but a little to assume Bodies so did they degenerate upon it and therefore still covet to possesse Bodies to this day and to enter into Swine rather than to want materiall Habitations Yet we never read that they delight in the bodily pleasures that men doe offend in No not when the Devill tempted Adam and Eve to eat the forbidden fruit doe we read that he so much as tasted of it himselfe though it might have been a notable allurement to Man so to doe allso This Sin of Gluttonie therefore is that which soils the Soule of Man rather than the Devill And though we call this a beastly sin yet Beasts exceed not so much therein as doth Man. But it is an unruly and unreasonable appetite in man of eating and drinking little considering the true use and ends of such necessarie acts ordained by God and Nature which are the maintenance of Being and daylie repairing or recruiting the losses the frail and mouldering body suffereth But first Men being prompted by Nature to eat and drink and a pleasure being conjoyned with them least men should omitt what is so necessarie blinde and servile Man devotes himselfe too often to that which was appointed to serve his turne But he that made Fountains and Rivers of waters for the relief of our thirst never intended we should throw our selves into them and be drown'd And he who gave man the understanding to invent Wines never intended he should drown himselfe in a Butt And he allso that indulged to man about the same time the use of Flesh as of the hearb of the Fields and roots of the Earth and fruits of Trees never meant we should never give over inventing new Dishes and Dainties or be too ravenous of simpler Diet but that we should measure both quantitie and quality of what we eat and drink by the rules of Nature his holy Word and certain other circumstances prudent Persons cannot be ignorant of unlesse they choose so to be 3. For notwithstanding it cannot be precisely determined what is the proper proportion of every mans Bodie no more than what proportion belongs to every mans Family which are greater or lesser nor how many or what manner of Dishes are fit for all mens Tables yet must Judgment and Reason direct in this case The common saying is That Nature is content with a little and Religion with lesse yet may that Rule be questioned if taken so loosely as generally For when it is said Nature is content with a little we understand thereby that Nature may subsist and be preserved with a little but what and how little that is Nature hath not taught us and I think Religion does not require we should too anxiously inquire after much lesse doth it require that we should eat or drink lesse than Nature requires For then it should require us to destroy Nature and so to murther our selves leisurely and slily which is most of all forbidden by Religion 4. But neither here ought any man to deceive himselfe so as by inconsiderate indulging himselfe Meats and Drinks in a preternaturall quantity kinde or quality contract an habit of so doing which to break off is next to destroying of Nature For this acquired necessity being neither of Gods or Natures contrivance or cause is more culpable than an accidentall detriment arising to the body by endeavouring to reduce it to its true and pristine State. So that the violence is not offer'd to it as corrupted or debauched but the violence was to corrupt it so as to bring it into a necessity of persisting in excesse by all meanes to be redressed former wrie steps and wrenchings affected and wilfull making the following lamenesse sinfull though not wilfull 5. But if we judge of Natures contentednesse from the common custome of eating and drinking to the quieting of naturall appetites so indeed Religion may be said to allow lesse than Nature For as much as it is an act of selfe-deniall to give over eating or drinking before Nature gives over craving So that it is a strange plea used by too many softened natures They cannot Fast nor indeed comply with the gentler and lighter Abstinences scarce deserving the names of Fastings because they finde their stomachs call for supplies accustomed They pretend presently they shall be sick and perhaps glorie in their infirmitie not considering what a great disparagement it is to any Christian to have so brought up his stomach that in wonted manner fed it must be And perhaps in justification of this unrulie appetite to alledge God hath made all things clean and all Meats are lawfull being taken with thanksgiving and such like mentioned before But such as these should doe very well to consider what Saint Paul writeth to the Corinthians 1 Ep. 6. 12. All things are lawfull to me but all things are not expedient All things are lawfull for me but I will not be brought under the power of any Meats for the belly and the belly for meats but God shall destroy both it and them Surely he that must eat in an uninterrupted course hath brought himselfe under the power or tyrannie of his belly a very lamentable servitude and not Christian liberty 6. This Sin of Intemperance therefore is incurred severall waies all which are not observed by some and by others I know not regarded But the principall may be these which I shall here rather touch than handle having elsewhere treated on this Subject One way of offending herein is the Quantity we eat or drink Another is the Qualitie when we are studious of Delicacies and Dainties A third way is in the manner when with too much intention of
preserve that comfortable state unshaken and the purity thereof undefiled being with Peter at the glorie of Christs Transfiguration loth to goe down the Mountain where such manifestations are made 8. And the Mystery of Godlinesse in this case is truely wonderfull if a man considers that not onely the way to this conjunction with God is purification of the Bodie and Soule from earthly uncleannesses but such Union and Converse with God doth change the Faces at least that is the outward formes of men not truely fitted or sanctified to such an end Hence is a resolution in some measure made of a doubt seeming difficult to me Who perceiving hereticall and schismaticall and men of unjust lives to make a fair appearance of good outward and retrenching the more scandalous Vices contrary to sound Piety could not but wonder how an erroneous faith and unrighteous and uncharitable demeanours in a Christian course should attain to so much as a commendable formalitie of Godlinesse For surely the very appearance of holinesse though there should be nothing more in the case is in it selfe laudable The reason of all this I take to be the strange forwardnesse many such abound with in pressing though indirectly into Gods Presence affecting mountainous phrases and phansying themselves intimate with God himselfe For as Conspiratours and Traitours frequenting the Kings Court and Presence and observing what is perfourmed of such as doe him immediate service and attend him can and doe easily and more artificially comport themselves as prime Subjects Or to use Saint Chrysostome's comparison As he that shall come into a Drugsters shop where Aromaticall Spices are pounded shall whether he will or not carrie away upon his Clothes some of the fragrancies which are there stirring Or lastly as the Censers of Corah Dathan and Abiram with their Complices became holy by being brought though in a wicked manner into Gods Presence and devoted to his service so ill-grounded and ill-advised Devotion to God doth make some alteration very laudable in men resembling God himselfe and his holinesse So that as sinceritie of Intention purity of Affection and Actions innocent and righteous doe conduce much to spirituall mindednesse and contemplation of and union with God so doe even that preposterous way of conversing with God and pressing unduly into Gods Presence divers times worke some good effect outwardly at least upon men And were it not that where Divine Contemplations are orderly performed and faithfully a reall and sound improvement of Christian Graces and Vertues was allso made and the Soule became not more like unto God so viewed and enjoyed it must needs have been an errour in Scholasticall Divines to preferre the Contemplative Life or the Life of Mary before the Practicall or the Life of Martha serving Christ restraining Contemplation to that way had in this world which beginning on such low and sensible Subjects as are before recited may rise to greater perfection in the more immediate intuition of God himselfe and the glorie to be revealed SECT V. Of the Vnion we have with God in Prayer habituall and actuall as the proper matter of Worshippe 1. FROM the two-fold Union with God spoken of Contemplation or Knowledge and Love proceeds as a necessarie consequence of both Adoration which consists in an actuall Devotion and Consecration of the whole man unto God and an inanition or emptying of a mans Soule into the fullnesse of God as the smaller as well as greater Rivers fall into the Ocean and loose themselves the Channell through which they run remaining the same and allwayes in those streames moving Or when as two intimate Friends of the same judgement and equally affectionate one to another meeting together after mutuall embraces fall into Discourses most kinde and pleasing one with another So the foresaid meeting of the Soule with God begets conference and holy Talk with God in Prayer It was not therefore thought sufficient by John the Baptist to have procured followers of his Doctrine nor attenders of his Person nor by Christ to have chosen his Apostles who should be allwayes neer him by profession unlesse he taught them to pray Our Father which art in Heaven c. For Filiation or Adoption whereby we have God for our Father sufficeth not without he be our heavenly Father and under that notion use Invocation of him and holy Communication with him by the Ascent of the heart to him in Prayer 2. And Prayer being of a very comprehensive nature may be considered in its Habit which is a generall and constant disposition of the minde to God of which sort we may understand Saint Paul to speake 1 Thessalonians 5. 17. Ephes 6. 18. Pray allwayes and Pray without ceasing by alienating the Affections from earthly things and raising and continuing the same to and with God. That so when ever God by any tacite suggestion shall say to the Soule Seek ye my face an Answer and Act may allwayes be in readinesse saying Thy face Lord will I seek For actuall Prayer is the exercise of that generall disposition men have toward God and differs no more from that than the Fire covered and the Fire kindled which latter when it ceases leaves new Coals apt to a repetition of the like flames And thus ascending unto God and for the time abiding with him we are estranged from terrestriall businesses and cogitations From which consideration a tolerable reason may be given why divers praying together in the conclusion are wont to salute one another as newly met For this we are wont to doe after a far Journey taken and a returne so having been as far as Heaven it selfe in Prayer and wholly as we ought at least estranged from things below we returning take Acquaintance with our Friends and Brethren Or perhaps having been so united to God as in such cases becomes us the Center of all Christian Charitie whereby we meet alltogether we testifie our Christian Affection thereby encreased with affectionate Salutations outward 3. But this is perfourmed as well that is as really though not so edifyingly in single addresses as in Society when a man makes known unto God that which would not be so proper to have published to others of which we may speake by and by For though for dayly and common Sacrifice Gods House and Altar is the most convenient place yet we may observe that those extraordinarie Revelations and Visions reported in Auncient and inferiour Histories to be made to the eminent Servants of God have been obtained chiefly in private retirements from the Noise and Dust of the World. Elias was so visited by God in the cleft of a Rock and Moses in the wide Wildernesse alone when God gave him the signall of his Presence by the Fire in the Bush And David counsells to enter into a mans own heart and commune with that in his Chamber as an excellent expedient to draw God to a friendly conference with him an appearance to him answerable to his exigence Exceeding
in the Spirit so are we to walk in the Spirit according to St. Paul Galat. 5. 25. For by Baptisme saith the same Apostle Eph. 2. 10. we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good workes which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them and especially calling all good Souldiers of Christ Jesus as Joshuah did the chief of the Children of Israel to set their feet on the necks of the Canaanitish Princes to trample upon those seven Capitall Sins which not only fight against our Soules themselves but are leaders on of others to assault and spoil us And from hence have we led the Soule to the top of Pisgah by the Unitive Way of Contemplation and Love and Acquiescence in God to have a certain foretaste of the fruit of that Land of Promise we long after and expect by the conjunction the Soule hath with God which we finde not so extravagant a Notion straining the simpler Doctrine of Faith and Christ to a sense offensive to Eares not throughly opened to the Mysteries of Religion but a smattering thereof was had by Auncient Philosophers as appears by the disquisitions between Porphyrie and Jamblichus of the Egyptian Mysteries where great things are spoken of the Anagogicall way of conversing with the gods by elevation of the understanding through true knowledge of God and that Theurgicall Vnion i. e. as I understand his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that divinely operative conjunction whereby a man hath Communion with God but all this he swelleth with being blinded and carried away with Egyptian darknesse indeed leading to horrible superstitions to attain such Perfections whereas the light of the Gospell and Doctrine of Christ with infinite lesse superstition and more perspicuitie puritie and simplicitie conducteth to that Ascent of the Soule and resting in God which makes us like unto him and Perfect as our Father which is in heaven is perfect Matth. 5. with allowances for the infirmities of Flesh and blood and mutablenesse we are subject unto being as St. Peter saith partakers of the Divine Nature 2. For though the words of Saint Paul 2 Corinth 2. 14. Now thanks be to God which allwayes causeth us to triumph in Christ have their true sense yet that I suppose is of the state of a Christian which is firme and sure resting upon this Foundation The Lord knoweth who are his and he will never leave his chosen ones untill they totally forsake him if that may be said But as to the actuall and continuall possession by satisfaction in him and spirituall sensations the Christian is mutable here and that which not without great difficulty and industry is for some time attained unto is in a short time and suddenly interrupted and hid from the eyes to the great dismaying of the devout Soule so that great care is to be taken as well to hold that comfortable communion with God as to acquire it and to recover it intermitted as once to have attained it For as the Sheet let down from Heaven by the four Corners to Saint Peter Acts 12. wherein he saw in a Vision all manner of Fare his Appetite could long for was as suddenly again taken up into Heaven so is it with the delectations which the Spirit feeleth let down from Heaven to its wonderfull content they are suddenly taken away up into Heaven again And when we imagine our selves in the third Heaven with Saint Paul we unexpectedly feel a Thorne in the flesh to humble us lest we should be exalted above measure For Paradise here would be the greatest temptation to fall again into sin So that as we read of Abraham the Elect of God and taken by his Providence out of his own Countrie and Kindred signifying the state of Nature to us was led into the Land of Promise and shown it but had no Inheritance in it for the present no not so much as to set his foot Acts 7. So hath the religious Soule no footing firme here though by Faith and Affection it hath before its eyes the promised Possession 3. It is therefore one principall Rule of rightly using what we have at any time attained to in Consolations the fruit of Union with God but not incessant or inseparable from it to understand so much lest finding our selves frustrated of our expectations we call in question the state it selfe we are in and bring unprofitable confusions upon our selves For as the Apostle saith Coloss 3. 3. We are dead and our life is hid with Christ When Christ who is our life shall appear then shall we allso appear with him in glory The time will come but is not yet come that we should see what is better now hid and kept with Christ till such time as the second fullnesse of time shall come and Christ too when our life will be manifested It may be that a loving Father towards an obsequious and dutifull Child may sometimes shew him the Grand Deed whereby he hath settled a great Estate upon him yea may carrie him out and shew him the Lands Houses Mines and Timber on them which he purposes to give him but none of these are at all necessarie to the main end it selfe but onely to his encouragement to persevere in his dutie No more is necessarie to a certainty of Salvation an assurance of Salvation or such extraordinary arguments thereof as being denied us we should fall into despondencie and sluggishnesse of Spirit or be weak-handed in Gods service 4. For secondly God may hereby have a gracious and wise designe to wean the fond minde from sensible Delectations whereby it should take up short of the ultimate end of all God himselfe seeking its will and content rather than Gods to which the more truely spirituall a man is so much more he is intent above all things and lesse mindes intermediate consolations which the lesse they are contended for the oftener they happen 5. Thirdly The Patience and constancie of the faithfull Servant of God by submission to his fatherly wisdome and pleasure in such Dispensation is exercised and manifested And that he doth not serve God nor follow Christ meerly for the Loaves which he miraculously feeds some with but for his own sake We all know the beginning middle and Conclusion of holy Job's life how religious and prosperous he was at the same time before God and how miserable he was by the same Providence remaining all that while invincible in his resolutions of adhering to God and perserving in his wonted righteousnesse whereby he declared that his Pietie was not built upon the fluid Elements of this World nor the sensible comforts pertaining to the service of God but the intrinsick excellencie of Religion it selfe carrying its Reward with it And so as Saint James speakes we know the end of him and such his patience and faith For so it pleaseth God himselfe to give an account of the hardship brought upon his own People travailing fourtie yeares in the desolate Wildernesse viz.